The King
The King (died March 16, 2020), whose real name is General Caesar Charlemagne, is a main character of the series and the archenemy-turned-ally of Master Chief. The leader of the Network and founder of Burger King, the King is eventually revealed to be the creator of Master Chief. He has been both antagonistic and helpful to Master Chief, but claims he has an ultimately benevolent purpose in fighting his true nemesis, Ronald McDonald. The King has since allied with the heroes in their pursuit to stop Ronald. After making a deal with Ronald to revert the alternate timeline and help Master Chief find Building 69, the King was seemingly killed in a shootout with the Ancients--only to be revealed as an AI with the ultimate goal of using Building 69's program to destroy the force controlling the series and bring everyone to the real world. Master Chief and his allies refuse to join him, and they have a final climactic showdown in which Master Chief allows himself to be killed, thus fulfilling the King's purpose and causing him to be destroyed. History Before the series The time travelling Master Chief was responsible for telling the King to leave his job at McDonalds. When Master Chief was born, the King observed his birth. It was revealed that the King is General Caesar Charlemagne, the creator of the SPARTAN project. Five years later, he invites the Arbiter to join the Network. Season 1 (2007-2008) The King pulls the strings behind most of the events of the first season, but his existance is not even known until late in the season, when CATS says that he and L. Ron Hubbard answer to someone else. He finally reveals himself when Master Chief is in the midst of a battle with CATS. The King appears, shoots CATS for his lack of usefulness, and then introduces himself to a shocked Master Chief before capturing him and the Arbiter. Alternate timeline (2007) When Ronald activates the Halo, an alternate timeline is created. In this alternate timeline, Master Chief is an eloquent, sophisticated, and polite protagonist. The King is the only person who remembers the original timeline, and demands that Ronald reset the timelines, offering to make a deal. The King asks Ronald to tell him the coordinates he is going to get out alternate-Master Chief, and in exchange, the King will heal Ronald's wounds back in the original timeline. As Ronald is gaining the coordinates to Building 69 from Master Chief, the King runs into General Charlemagne, who remarks on his costume. Unbeknowst to any of the characters but Ronald, the King and Charlemagne are the same person. Minisodes (2008) The King recruits Chad Warden, the Angry Video Game Nerd, and Chris Hansen for their various skills and dislike of Master Chief. He specifically has the AVGN begin construction on what the heroes and his own subordinates believe is a superweapon. Season 2 (2008-2009) The King continues working behind the scenes for the first part of season 2, killing Jack Thompson for his incompetance and having Barack Obama assassinated by Hillary Clinton. He eventually activates his "superweapon," which is actually a portal to a mythical space structure called the Ark. The Network enters the portal and the King begins the preperations to fire a laser from the structure, first capturing the Arbiter and Cortana. Later, he plays a spirited game of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with Master Chief and negotiates with Sergeant Avery Johnson of the UNSC. Eventually, the King is betrayed by Hillary, who decides to use the Ark's laser for her own purposes, but she is killed by Cortana. The King then has a climactic duel with Master Chief and the Arbiter, but reveals his true, heroic intentions to stop the villainous Ancients. However, Cortana disables the Ark's laser, and the Ancients arrive successfully. The King boards Ronald's ship and escapes the Ark before it explodes, violently launching everyone else through time and space. Meet the Ancients (44 BC) The King appears briefly at the end of Meet the Ancients, where he is revealed to have been sent to the distant past with Ronald. Season 3 44 BC After being sent back in time by the explosion of the Ark, the King attempts to convince Avery Johnson to help him fight Ronald, but Johnson refuses. Ronald holds the King at gunpoint and is about to shoot him when Johnson returns and fights off Ronald. The King shoots Ronald, but he survives and time travels to the future. 343 Guilty Spark appears from the future and tells the pair that Master Chief and the Arbiter are in the year 2020. The King then brings Johnson to a past version of Ronald, who he says can help them. They witness the time travelling Master Chief tell the past-King to quit his job, and then request help from past-Ronald. The King explains that he met Ronald while the latter was time travelling. Past-Ronald then sends the two to the year 2020. 2020 After being sent to the year 2020, he and Johnson attack the Ancients onboard Installation 04 and witness Ronald seemingly activate the ring. However, because the ring was activated prior to 100% charge, the structure begins collapsing. Master Chief, the Arbiter, and Cortana disable the ring and the King shoots Ronald repeatedly and leaves him for dead, but unbeknownst to them, Ronald survives and activates the ring at full charge. An alternate timeline is subsequently created (see section alternate timeline above). When the timelines are reset, the King explains that Ronald intends to raid Building 69 for a program that can be used by an AI to control the universe, and that this information was hidden in Master Chief's brain by Ronald himself. He also explains that the user of the program is destined to destroy Master Chief. After telling the heroes to flee, the King holds up his end of the bargain, healing Ronald. However, Ronald then summons security and the remaining Ancients. After a tense conversation, they open fire, fatally wounding the King. The King fights back and kills everyone but Ronald. Ronald then shoots the King in the head, his last words being "suck my--" However, at Building 69, Master Chief, the Arbiter, Cortana, and Ronald discover that the King did not die and is an AI who has now downloaded the program. The King explains how the series is scripted by a force in the "real world" and he intends to destroy that force and free everyone from their fictional prison, but the group refuses to help him and, in the chaos, Ronald and Johnson are both killed by the King. After they escape, Cortana reveals she has made contact with someone she met in the AI database who can help them: CATS. Master Chief, Cortana, and CATS go to the Quantum Flux Teleporter to find the Voice. Once there, Master Chief goes through successfully, but as Cortana goes through, the King begins shutting the portal remotely. It closes on her as she goes through and she is fatally damaged. She explains that she can no longer be rebooted because she has now fulfilled her purpose as an AI: helping Master Chief find the Voice and complete his own destiny. Reminding him of their first conversation, where she told him he is destined to kill the King, Cortana dies. Master Chief then has his final battle with the King. He eventually realizes he cannot defeat the King, and his only course of action is to allow the King to destroy him, thus fulfilling his purpose as an AI. The Voice then tells the King he is no longer necessary, and the King is disintegrated. Personality Even though he is technically a benevolent character, the King demonstrates ruthlessness to his minions; he personally killed CATS, Jack Thompson, and Chad Warden and was responsible for the deaths of the Angry Video Game Nerd and Chris Hansen. He manipulates the heroes by never revealing the full extent of his plan until it is too late, but when he does so, it becomes clear to them that his evil actions were actually preventing a more evil group, the Ancients, from taking over the universe. Trivia *After Master Chief, the King has appeared the most of any main character. *The King is the only main character to appear in all three seasons, the minisodes, and Meet the Ancients. *In the first episode, as Master Chief tells the viewer not to be a "Burger King fanboy," the King is shown. While the idea for the King as a character in the series had not yet occured, the scene could be retroactively seen as foreshadowing. *Both Master Chief and the King are responsible for the creation of their own outfits via time travel predestination paradoxes. *Master Chief and the King are responsible for creating each other. Master Chief went back in time and told the King to leave McDonalds, which eventually made him join the UNSC and create Master Chief. *The scene where the King watches Master Chief's birth has been seen three different times: from Johnson's perspective in "Master Chief: The Movie," from Master Chief's perspective in "Master Chief Sucks at Time Travel," and finally from the King's perspective in "Master Chief: The Secret Origin of the King." *The King is responsible for the deaths of almost all his subordinates. He directly killed CATS, Jack Thompson, and Chad Warden, and allowed Master Chief and the Arbiter to kill the Angry Video Game Nerd and Chris Hansen. L. Ron Hubbard and Tom Cruise are his only subordinates whose deaths he was not involved with. Ironically, at the end of the series, the King himself is killed for outliving his usefulness, the same reason why he killed almost all his subordinates. Category: Characters